For once, it wasn’t the red carpet fashion dos and don’ts that overshadowed the Golden Globes but host Ricky Gervais’ politically incorrect jokes. And while the majority of viewers found him funny, Judd Apatow clearly wasn’t amused by his caustic humor, tweeting “I thought Joan Rivers did a wonderful job hosting the Golden Globes tonight” and “Ricky Gervais should do an episode of extras where he hosts the golden globes and is out of tune. Cut to female friend looking disappointed.”

The director felt that the Brit had gone too far in his quest to deflate some overinflated Hollywood egos. So he asked his Twitter followers to send him funny but less mean-spirited jokes for his stint as host of the untelevised PGA Awards, Check them out after the jump.

Besides the snarky nature of his jokes, Gervais bothered because he spoke the unspeakable truth in a brutally honest way. Too brutal for Apatow, apparently.

“If anyone has any jokes that they think are better than Ricky Gervais’ post here and I will read the winners and say your name at PGA Awards,” Apatow tweeted and hundreds of his 100,000+ fans responded. “Lots of #pgajokes coming in. Some excellent. Many insane. Most hateful of celebrities. Hard to be funny and not vicious. Steve Martin is king,” Apatow wrote.

While most played along, others questioned the director’s rant. When @delightfulcrab tweeted “@JuddApatow seems surprisingly bitter,” Apatow replied, “Just at two am in Atlanta. It will pass. Better than sleeping.”

@totallymorgan The PGA Awards are so cheap even the host had to crowd-source material.

@alecowen It’s not hard to be funny and not vicious. For example, fuck you.

@nicksnow Ricky Gervais has announced plans to start an illicit dogfighting operation to begin rehabilitating his image.

@Mimekiller I see we have a lot of rich people in the audience, I hope your riches bring you satisfaction and happiness.

@Ziggypalffy why are rappers always singing songs about all the stuff they own? It’s like their target audience is the IRS.

And my favorites:

@isaac_arquieta Were you all REALLY expecting @JuddApatow to pick funny jokes?? Hasn’t done it in over 5 movies, Why would he start now?

(For the record, I do like his movies.)

@omitofo Inception is really about Hollywood. everyone’s constantly trying to ruin your dreams so they can make a buck.

Too bad Ricky Gervais doesn’t tweet. I’m sure he would have participated in Apatow’s “competition” and come up with some snarky lines. I can understand that Apatow found Gervais mean-spirited, but the fact that he was tweeting about this at 2am is perhaps indicative of a deeper dislike of the comedian.

When Gervais introduced Tim Allen, Apatow tweeted, “The Santa Clause was better than The Invention of Lying,” referring to the 1994 Christmas hit movie starring Tim Allen and 2009’s flop with Ricky Gervais, respectively (I thought it was only his stint at the Globes that you disapproved of, Judd?) At least one follower agreed with him: “@SaraJBenincasa: to be fair, The Santa Clause was FUCKING AWESOME.” Apatow retweeted her along with the following comment: “That’s my point! As was toy story. Mean is too lazy for RG.”

But was he really being mean or just having fun with some easy targets and saying out loud what everyone really knows and thinks anyways? He may have gone a bit far, for example using Robert Downey Jr.’s drug problems as comedy material, but he was funny. And I like to think that these A-listers have thick skin. Like Gervais said before the Globes – he felt he didn’t go far enough last year and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association invited him back as host. His whole act is exactly that – an act that is so far-fetched and outrageous that it will supposedly get him “fired” from his Golden Globes hosting duties. Or maybe he wanted to leave with a bang. Gervais revealed to TMZ today that he won’t be hosting the awards show a third time. “I think twice is enough,” he said, although he was clearly relishing in his performance targeting Charlie Sheen, Bruce Willis, The Tourist, Scientologist Tom Cruise, Hugh Hefner and Sex and the City’s “airbrushed” actresses. “I loved it more than last year actually.” So did we, and at least Christian Bale and singer Bryan Adams thought he was funny, too. The singer told Popeater, “I loved Ricky hosting the Golden Globes. He doesn’t give a s**t. ‘Look, I’m going to say this because that’s me every day’.”

Riddled as the Globes are with the various scandals and lawsuit from their former publicist, they should embrace the Gervais controversy. It distracted the media away from their own troubles and for once publications other than fashion magazines were discussing the overrated awards ceremony.

As @Es_Daddy77 said:

“Lighten up, Judd. Are you one of those people that watches celebrity roasts but wishes everyone would be nicer to Carrot Top?”

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